Here are profiles of the fifth and sixth award-winning titles.

The ultimate guide to country living! More than 150 of Storey's expert authors contributed to this compendium of gardening, building, raising animals, and homesteading (our judges also thought it would nicely into the library of apartment dwellers).

More than 500 fact-filled pages cover thousands of the arts, crafts, and skills of country life. This encyclopedic book will make you feel like you have a master mechanic at your elbow, or an expert gardener looking over the fence. Armed with this hardworking book you will be able to create it, fix it, improve it, do it, and live a more self-reliant life.

An excerpt:

"Plants Birds Love."
Birds add color, activity, and sweet music to any garden area. Add the following plants to your plot to encourage birds to stop and stay a while.

For 18 years our mission at Independent Publisher has been to recognize and encourage the work of publishers who exhibit the courage and creativity necessary to take chances, break new ground, and bring about changes, not only to the world of publishing, but to our society, our environment, and our collective spirit. Click here to see the entire listing of Ten Outstanding Books.
"Best Book Arts Craftsmanship" - An Elizabethan Bestiary Retold,and In the Light from Stained Glass; Horse & Buggy Press, 303 Kinsey St., Raleigh, NC 27603; phone 919-828-2514. Write or call for a free catalog of hand-crafted titles.

Horse & Buggy Press publishes the work of modern authors using traditional hand processes. Some of these methods have changed very little since the time of Gutenberg. "The idea is to make books that are tactile, intimate artifacts, not just the copy of a plan," says book craftsman Dave Wofford. "My goal is to make the author's work come alive."

Editions run from 100 to 1000 copies, depending on whether the entire book is letterpress printed or not. An Elizabethan Bestiary Retold, combines offset printed text and a letterpress printed cover and spine. The book includes poems, illustrations, and an essay on the tradition of bestiaries. Author Jeffrey Beam based the poems on his studies of 15th century bestiaries, collaborating with illustrator Ippy Patterson to depict fantastic creatures in sumptuous detail. Some of them, like the Cat and the Crocodile, are familiar, while others such as the Phoenix and the Gorgon, are mythical. Here is the Bison:
"Blood/excelling all others:/purple and/so hot/swords and spears/melt/within."
Patterson approached the illustrations the same way the medieval texts did, basing the drawings solely on verbal and written descriptions.

In the Light from Stained Glass is an entirely letterpress printed, hand-crafted book, and was published in an edition of 118 numbered copies. "It was appropriate for this book of poems, inspired by events over a lifetime, by 78 year-old Frank Ryan," says Wofford. The book truly is an organic thing to hold in your hands, the heavy cover more plant-like than paper-like. With its heart-felt poetry, the type visibly indented into the thick paper pages, and its simple but rich illustrations, the book comes alive in your hands.

The Ten Outstanding Books of the Year

For 18 years our mission at Independent Publisher has been to recognize and encourage the work of publishers who exhibit the courage and creativity necessary to take chances, break new ground, and bring about changes, not only to the world of publishing, but to our society, our environment, and our collective spirit. Click here to see the entire listing of Ten Outstanding Books.